Tear In Your Hand
by Medea Arduinna
Summary: His story was so believable that even she had to come here to accept it, forgetting about everything she'd ever known.


**Tear In Your Hand**

_And is your place in Heaven  
__worth giving up these kisses?_

The keys jingled in her hand as she stepped out of the car, shutting its door before her shoes crunched on the brittle autumn leaves covering the walkway to the front door. Her dress whipped violently against her calves with the strong wind blowing, her hair struggling from the ponytail, some defiant wisps already escaped and tickling the back of her neck. She paused before the door, tucking a swallow and some fears away, before she pushed the key in and turned, opening the door. The house still smelled the same as it had seven months ago, before he stopped occupying it. She closed and locked the door back behind her, dropping her keys on the foyer table before taking off her cloak and hanging it on the peg on the back of the door.

Her first trip was up the staircase to her left, the curving wooden stairs decorated with a plush red runner down the center. The hallways were cold, shut off from light, though there was the pearl-grey of a promised upcoming storm streaming through the windows in the individual rooms. Her eyes lingered on his bedroom, the bed still mussed as though he'd just woken up from it. She walked in, her eyes closing briefly as his scent reached her, enveloping her in a painful shroud of memories, chill bumps spreading across her arms. She turned on her heel and left the room, descending the stairs again. The study to the right of the foyer still had papers spread across the desk, an inkwell with a quill stuck in, a letter to her half-finished. She ran her fingertips over the parchment, as if her touch would bring him back somehow. She left that room soon too, and finally made her way straight into the living room.

An almost clichéd picture greeted her eyes as she looked at a silhouette of a young man sitting on a window seat, looking out into the weary day. She kept staring, wishing with all of her being that this wasn't a dream or an apparition or just her mind playing tricks on her after not being able to sleep for three days - the reason she'd come here. To get some closure. She opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off, without even looking at her.

"I know." She slowly walked over, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder. He took it in his own hand instead, and he was real, she knew. The warmth covering her freezing hand so unlike the touch of a ghost. He looked up at her, his eyes striking a familiar chord in her heart, one she hadn't felt for the past 227 days. Tears were already stinging at her eyes, but she finally let them free from their invisible cages as his arms went around her waist, pulling her against him, his head against her stomach. "It's the only way I thought of getting away from them." _The monsters,_ she thought sadly. She thought she'd had it bad the past few months, the monsters tracking her down everywhere, but she knew he had it twenty times worse. They would die out eventually, or just move on to more appealing prey, though it would be hard to top them, and he was right. His story was so believable that even she had to come here to accept it, forgetting about everything she'd ever known. Just the thought of him being gone blocked every reason he shouldn't be from her memory.

"Stay with me."

"My job -"

"I need somebody." He stood, his arms still around her waist, her hands coming up to cup his face in them. "Please." He was never one to beg for help, and here he was, wasting away before her eyes, beseeching for her to stay.

She replied a simple, lingering kiss on his lips, and replied, "Yes."

And with that her life ended.

**FIN**

**A/N:** The lyrics at the beginning are from Tori Amos's song "Cooling" and title is from one of her songs of the same title. "Cooling" is sad sounding and I felt it fit this piece. Forgive me for any errors, I typed this at 2:44 AM after a very busy day but I had a bunny and it wouldn't go away. Thanks for reading and please review! )


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